Way too nice a guy
by ImplicationsProblematic
Summary: Shepard reminisces about her friendship with Jacob on the SR2. So the idea behind this is that, sometime between ME2 and ME3, Shepard is reminiscing about her crew and describing them to someone- maybe it's Vega, or Anderson, or Kaidan even. 8 crew members down. -NOW WITH ART by the amazing AEMcDuff-


**-I got distracted from these fics by some Shenko nonsense that wouldn't leave me alone- but we're back with Jacob.**

**I'd like to thank the lovely AEMcDuff for 1) the art, 2) being generally supportive and great 3-**

So, Jacob Taylor… Well I met him on Lazarus Station shortly after I woke up. I'd had Miranda guiding me over the tannoy, but Jacob was the first person I met face to face once I was awake. The station was under attack— mechs everywhere— and when I ran into Jacob he was tackling some LOKIS. Thermal clips were scarce, but we're both biotics so that wasn't too much trouble. Once the mechs were dealt with, I laid into him.

Poor Jacob. I was really rude to him. _"Where the hell am I? What's going on? Who the fuck are you?"_ He's such a laid back guy and I was just this psychotic zombie screaming at him. But, in fairness, I think I can be excused a little aggro— it was sort of a stressful situation for me.

He convinced me that it'd be better if we got the hell away from the station first and did questions second— but not before he mentioned that I'd lost two years of my life. _Two fucking years_. That was enough of a bombshell to be getting on with, so me moved on and quickly ran into Wilson— a guy I vaguely remembered from one of my unscheduled trips into consciousness during my reconstruction. He was Miranda's assistant I think… I never really found out— he wasn't around for long. It turned out that he was responsible for the attack and Miranda… _dispatched_ him within seconds of appearing. She knows how to make an entrance.

But anyway, Jacob. He was more sympathetic to my situation than Miranda— he seemed to think I deserved a full explanation. Again, I was pretty rude… but when he told me they were Cerberus… Come to think of it, I probably should have figured out who they were before then, seeing as Cerberus put their logos on abso—fucking—lutely _everything_. But hey, I was still out of it. Resurrection will do that to you.

Miranda was all for grilling me into oblivion to see how well I was functioning, seeing as I woke up early. Jacob was a little gentler in his approach. Like I said, generally speaking, Jacob is a very chilled guy. He was ex—Alliance, an Eden Prime survivor. He first met Miranda when they were both working against the same group of Batarian extremists, a while after that, she recruited him. Apparently, what convinced him was the nature of the project she was working on— by which I mean **_me_****.** So that's another person poached from the Alliance in my name— just like Joker and Chakwas. Although, those two didn't really _join_ Cerberus I suppose— but it's still sort of unsettling. I just… I don't know…

That was the thing I couldn't get my head around. Ostensibly, Jacob was this friendly, laid back guy— but he'd signed up with this hideous, racist, terrorist group. How do you reconcile that? He wasn't xenophobic at all— Joker used to say that he was way too nice a guy for someone who knew that many ways to kill people. He got on well with all of the non—human crew; he and Garrus used to swap battle tales all the time. He was wary of Thane for a little while— but that was because he didn't trust assassins, _not_ because he was a Drell. Besides, that didn't last very long— they got on well once they'd fought together. Tali didn't trust Jacob when they met. But that was hardly surprising given Cerberus' history with the Migrant Fleet. Jacob made a conscious effort to win her round and to be her friend— and it worked. Whereas Miranda… she didn't make that effort. I think Tali respected her by the end of the mission— maybe even identified a little— both of them have serious issues with their fathers.

I didn't trust Miranda _or_ Jacob at the start and I changed my mind over the course of the mission. But the difference was, I came to like Miranda by chipping away at the whole _Ice—Queen_ thing and coming to figure her out. I consider her a good friend now, but I don't think the other crew saw her that way, even though their opinion of her improved. My revelations about Miranda were pretty private; she warmed up, but she didn't tell the others the things she told me that changed the way I saw her so drastically. I think Kasumi may have found something out though— firstly because that's what she _does_, and secondly because she seemed to make a bit more of an effort to understand her. But then Kasumi is just a very compassionate person in many ways. Always aware that there's more to people than they let on. But I'm getting off topic, _my point is_, unlike Miranda, Jacob actively sought to win people over— to show them he was a good guy. And he is. Certainly a little misguided, and prone to oversimplify things— but fundamentally a nice guy. Flirty as hell too— but I wasn't interested. Besides —haha— Kasumi called dibs.

Shortly after that clusterfuck of a mission on Horizon, Jacob asked to see me. The ship his father served on went missing ten years ago— you'd think that would've messed him up pretty badly, but, like I said, he was weirdly well adjusted for someone in a terrorist group. But then, ten years on, the ship— that had apparently vanished entirely— started broadcasting a distress signal, totally out of the blue. Jacob was resigned to the fact that his dad was probably dead, but it was still bothering him. I couldn't afford to have my squad distracted, so we set out to investigate.

The ship— _The Hugo Gernsback_— crashed on Aiea in the Rosetta Nebula. I don't know what I was expecting to find, but certainly not something quite so disturbing. From the ship's VI— which was mercifully still functioning— we found out that the Captain had died in the crash, leaving Jacob's father in charge, and also that eating the local fauna would lead to neural decay. Which explained the abundance of batshit insane ex—crew running around the place. They could be divided into two groups; _hunters_ determined to tear us apart and unfortunate, docile creatures who were incredibly confused and terrified of Jacob because he had _"a cruel face"_. The other clear distinction between the groups was that the hunters were exclusively male and the poor souls were all women. Things weren't looking good. Oh, and the other thing we found out was that the distress beacon had been repaired about a year after the crash, but had only just been activated, nine years later.

It quickly became apparent that Jacob's father had hoarded the ship's rations, leaving the lesser crew to eat the toxic plant life. He also seemed to have segregated the women into some sort of sick private harem— assigning them like property. Doubtless they wouldn't have been as compliant if they hadn't neurologically regressed into terrified, defenseless wrecks.

Personally, I was sick to my stomach— Garrus too; abuse of power and exploitation of the vulnerable is a _biiiig_ no no in his book. But Jacob? Jacob was _furious_. That was the least composed I ever saw him. But I couldn't blame him. To think your father was dead and then to find out that he was alive and well, living out a perverse, tyrannical fantasy… I can't imagine.

I was worried that Jacob would want to kill him. I would have stopped him if that had been the case— but I didn't have to. We could have left him there and let the crew deal with him— that's what he probably deserved. But having that on his conscience could have driven Jacob crazy. So we made sure the Alliance picked _'Captain_ Taylor' up along with the surviving crew. He'll stand trial and hopefully— well, I think the boat may have sailed on _'justice_', but it's as close as it can be. In any case, it's what Jacob needed to move on and that's what he did. After that, Jacob was more focused, more precise in his combat style— I guess there must have been more lingering issues kicking around his subconscious than I realised.

When we parted ways, Jacob told me he was leaving Cerberus— just like Miranda. I'll admit it, taking two of The Illusive Man's best operatives with me when I told him to go fuck himself and flew off in his multi—billion credit warship… that felt pretty fucking good. I don't know what he'll be doing now— he mentioned some friends he wanted to try and get away from Cerberus…. Risky, but I'm confident he can handle it.

**Well, I tried.**

**But I struggled- he's just not that interesting! (In my humble opinion) I'd love to be persuaded otherwise. **  
**Samara is up next!**


End file.
